And We’re off!

Welcome friends and family, friends who are family and family who are friends. Well, you know who you are. Welcome to our first Blog Blast!

Blog 1 – September 2023

We finally left home and our dirt choked air in our beloved Coachella Valley about 11am. The road began in its usual way. We’ve driven that well worn path to Las Vegas so many times that there seemed nothing new. Once through Las Vegas, it all became virgin territory. Literally. We hit the Virgin River territory and it was magnificent! We started through the towering walls of the Virgin River Gorge. Tremendous uplifts blotted the sun. We poked ourselves in and out of the sunlight, twisting and turning through the mountain.

Show me the way to go home.

Wait, is she singing back there? Eddie are you singing?

And I’m tired and I want to go to bed.

Eddie, why are you singing?

I had a little drink about an hour ago.

You did not have a drink. You went to the Vet and had shots – rabies, not vodka. You had benadryl to keep you nose from blowing up. You have not been drinking.

And it’s gone right to my head. Zzzzzzzzz.

Silence. Thankfully.

Anyway, back to the drive. The Gorge was longer than we expected and ended by exploding into an open basin surrounded by mountains. The colors reminiscent of watermelon – greens and red. Truly lovely.

We arrived in Saint George, UT after touching 4 states (CA, NV, AZ, UT) and one time zone in 6 hours. We were starving. After checking into our Quality Inn (quality being a descriptor, not a judgment as to its characteristics) we found a restaurant where Eddie could join us. George’s on the Corner. Discussions are still being had regarding the delicious Heritage Tomato BLT and the Tostada Salad. Also, and thankfully so, Utah is not dry.

It was a stunning evening with colors gradually shading the sky. We ate and chatted and discussed the three men behind Michelle. We were fairly convinced about their family status (another check in the plus column for Utah). Eddie broke the ice by sneaking over to their table for petting. Leave it to our little Ambassador of Travel to break the ice for us. Easy exchanges became full conversations and we are now introduced to Hunter and Colby and their friend Logan. We shared another happy hour chatting and learning about them and getting hints as to what to see in Salt Lake City.

Actually, you trained me to troll for friends.

We did not. Go back to sleep.

Zzzzzzz

The evening finally caught up with us and we headed back to our hotel and our not so comfortable bed. Before sleep, Hunter texted us with an invitation to breakfast. We jumped right on that train and made plans. Day 1 – what fun!

8 am and we’re at St. Helen’s Cafe with Hunter and Colby. Interesting men and the conversation rolled along. We asked them why there were so many saints here knowing that the LDS church does not do saints. Apparently, St. George was founded by Catholics and were originally the majority group here. That is no longer the case, but those Saints just kept rolling on.

That’s all for now. We’ll keep you posted periodically. Salt Lake City next!